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Letter: Distorted facts lead to fear

I try not to read the opinion page because there are so many right-wing extremists who frequently write letters to the editor. These writers often promote right-wing propaganda not based in fact.

I should probably also ignore the crazy emails I get that spread nonsense also not based on fact, and which are often purposely misleading.

A recent letter about physicians thinking of quitting medicine because of the Affordable Care Act was based on a bogus study carried out by a group of disgruntled doctors. Never mind that only 4 percent of a small sample of doctors even responded, and that the ACA was not even mentioned in the study!

All I did was Google the comment and found out that it was a purposeful lie being propagated by a few malcontents.

I hope that people will take the time to fact-check information before believing it. I have no doubt both sides do this.

It just so happens that I have recently received three forwarded emails full of this kind of nonsense, and they were all from my conservative friends, so I am starting to wonder about people's gullibility.

FDR's "We have nothing to fear but fear itself " is proving once again to be a true statement. I can only guess that these distortions of the truth are trying to play on people's fears.